"Phir Bhi Tumko Chaahunga" () is an Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language song from the Indian film ''

Half Girlfriend Half Girlfriend is an Indian English coming of age, young adult romance novel by Indian author Chetan Bhagat. The novel, set in rural Bihar, New Delhi, Patna, and New York, is the story of a Bihari boy in quest of winning over the girl he lov ...

''. Picturised on

Shraddha Kapoor Shraddha Kapoor (born 3 March 1987 or 1989Arjun Kapoor Arjun Kapoor (born 26 June 1985) is an Indian actor working in Hindi films. Born to the Surinder Kapoor family, he is the son of film producer Boney Kapoor and Mona Shourie. Kapoor made his acting debut in 2012 with romance ''Ishaqzaade'' which ...

, the song has been sung by

Arijit Singh Arijit Singh (born 25 April 1987) is an Indian singer and music composer. He sings predominantly in Bengali and Hindi, but has also performed in various other Indian languages. He is the recipient of a National Award and six Filmfare Awards ...

and

Shashaa Tirupati Shashaa Kiran Tirupati (born 21 December 1989) is a Canadian playback singer, songwriter, and music producer of Indian descent. Popularly known as "The Humma Girl", in 2018, she won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer, as wel ...

. The music of the song is composed by

Mithoon Mithun Sharma (born 11 January 1985), also known as Mithoon, is an Indian Hindi film music director, lyricist-composer and singer. Mithoon composed the Hindi song "Tum Hi Ho" from the 2013 Bollywood romantic film ''Aashiqui 2''. Mithoon recei ...

and the lyrics are penned by

Manoj Muntashir Manoj Shukla (born 27 February 1976), better known by his stage name Manoj Shukla ‛Muntashir’, is an Indian lyricist, poet and screenwriter. He wrote several successful Hindi songs for films. These have included "Teri Mitti", "Galliyan", "Te ...

. Reprise version of the track is sung by

titled, "Pal Bhar (Chaahunga Reprise)", and also another female version titled, "Phir Bhi Tumko Chaahungi" is sung by

Shraddha Kapoor Shraddha Kapoor (born 3 March 1987 or 1989

Background

The song was written in

Nazm ''Nazm'' () is a major part of Urdu and Sindhi poetry that is normally written in rhymed verse and also in modern prose-style poems. is a significant genre of Urdu and Sindhi poetry; the other one is known as ''ghazal'' (). is significantly ...

style in 2001 by the writer Manoj Muntashir, while he was working for the TV show ''

Yatra ( sa, यात्रा, 'journey', 'procession'), in Indian-origin religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, generally means a pilgrimage to holy places such as confluences of sacred rivers, sacred mountains, places associated w ...

.'' Muntashir wrote the Nazm in his diary at

Dal Lake Dal is a lake in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is an urban lake, the second largest lake in Jammu and Kashmir, and the most visited place in Srinagar by tourists and locals. It is integral to tourism and recreation in ...

in Kashmir while thinking of his wife. The song was then forgotten for years until music composer

Ankit Tiwari Ankit Tiwari is an Indian playback singer, live perfomer ,music director, composer. His career began upon meeting Pradeep Sarkar where he got a chance to work on jingles and started composing background music for television programmes. Subsequ ...

heard about it and insisted that he use it. Muntashir was hesitant to use it in films, but later submitted on the insistence of film director

Mohit Suri Mohit Suri is an Indian film director. Born into the Bhatt family, he is well known for directing the films '' Murder 2 '' (2011), the musical romance ''Aashiqui 2'' (2013) and the romantic thrillers ''Awarapan'' (2007), ''Ek Villain'' (2014) a ...

. As Mohit Suri believed if produced properly the song would be a "Historical". According to Muntashir, "Mohit told

to compose the music and it was beautiful. The credit has to go to Mithoon for bringing it to Mohit's notice."

Pre-release

The track registered over 4 million views through unofficial versions and remixes, even before the song's official release. Muntashir said, ‛he can't believe how much of an impact just two lines of the song have created.’

Reception

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

'' wrote that "Phir Bhi Tumko Chaahunga" is "sung in the soulful voice of

" and that it "has romance written all over it. The song beautifully puts across feeling of unconditional love" ''

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...

s Pratibha D. wrote, "Arijit Singh weaves magic yet again. The music for the movie is given by renowned music composer Mithoon, whose romantic touch in tracks just takes you into another world." NDTV Movies wrote, "'Phir Bhi Tumko Chahunga' is a soulful rendition by Arijit Singh." Writer of the song Manoj Muntashir said, "I would like to mention, Mithoon has done what i always thought was impossible. Without changing one word from the original poetry, he made a tune India is shedding tears and spilling cans of beer over. It's a craze because of Mithoon's genius." Director of the film Mohit Suri said, "I'm taken aback by the quantum of love and the amount of anticipation around the song. As my reciprocation I would like to present the song to my audiences sooner than scheduled. Mithoon, Arijit, and me are overwhelmed by all the love." ''Radioandmusic.com'' wrote "'Phir Bhi Tumko Chaahunga' features soulful vocals by Arijit Singh, which will surely soothe the soul. Revealing just a small verse of the song, was enough for music lovers and the singer's fans to start to love it. The song was an instant hit among the audiences and fans and music lovers have already made several covers of the song, which seem to have gone viral already. Following this, the makers have decided to treat their fans by preponing the song release and give out the full original track."

Accolades

References

{{Arijit Singh 2017 songs Songs written for films Hindi film songs Songs with lyrics by Manoj Muntashir Arijit Singh songs Songs written by Mithoon